Contents

History

France's first experience with an upper house was under the Directory
from 1795 to 1799, when the Council of Ancients was the upper
chamber. There were Senates in both the First and Second Empires (the former being
known as the sénat conservateur, the latter as
the French Senate), but these were only nominally legislative
bodies - technically they were not legislative, but rather advisory
bodies on the model of the Roman Senate.

With the Restoration in 1814, a new Chamber of Peers was created, on the model
of the British House of Lords. At first it contained
hereditary peers, but following the July Revolution of 1830, it became a
body to which one was appointed for life. The Second Republic returned to a
unicameral system after 1848, but soon after the establishment of
the Second French Empire in 1852, a
Senate was established as the upper chamber. In the Fourth Republic, the Senate was
renamed the Council of the Republic, but its function was largely
the same. With the new constitution of the Fifth
Republic enforced on October 4, 1958, the older name of Senate
was restored.

Composition and election

Until September 2004, the Senate had 321 senators, each elected
to a nine-year term. On that date, the term was reduced to six
years, while the number of senators will progressively increase to
346 in 2010 to reflect changes in the country's demographics.
Senators were elected in thirds every three years; this will also
change to one-half of their number every three years.[1]

Senators are elected indirectly by approximately
150,000 local elected officials ("grands électeurs"), including
regional councilors, department councilors, mayors, city councilors
and their delegates in large towns, and deputies of the National
Assembly. This system introduces a bias in the composition of the
Senate, which favors rural areas. As a consequence, while the
political majority changes frequently in the National Assembly, the
Senate has remained politically conservative since the foundation of the
Fifth Republic, much to the
displeasure of the Socialists,[2]and some
analysts are expecting that it will remain so in the forthcoming
years. This has spurred controversy, especially after the September
2008 senatorial elections[3] in
which the (left-wing) Socialist party, despite controlling all but
two of France's regions, a majority of départements, and communes
representing more than 50% of the population, still failed to
achieve a majority in the Senate.

Twelve senators are elected to represent French citizens living
outside the Republic.[4]

Following from a tradition started by the first National
Assembly during the French Revolution, the "left-wing" parties sit to the left as seen
from the president's seat, and the "right-wing" parties sit
to the right, and the seating thus indicates the political
spectrum as represented in the Senate.

Powers

According to the Constitution,
the Senate has nearly the same powers as the National Assembly. Bills
may be submitted by the government (projets de loi) or by
either house of Parliament (propositions de loi). However,
if the National Assembly and the Senate cannot agree upon the
language of a bill, the Government can ask the National Assembly to
make a final vote on the bill, either using the original version
that the National Assembly voted on, or the edited version adopted
by the Commission mixte paritaire and including
any amendments put forth by the Senate that the National Assembly
may desire to adopt.[5] During
a period of social dominance, or conflictual bicameralism, the
Assembly can override a Senate veto.

Because both houses may amend the bill, it may take several
readings to reach an agreement between the National Assembly and
the Senate. When the Senate and the National Assembly cannot agree
on a bill, the government can decide, after a procedure called
commission mixte paritaire, to give the final decision to
the National Assembly, whose majority is normally on the
government's side. This does not happen frequently: most of the
time both houses eventually agree on the bill, or the government
decides to withdraw it. However, this power gives the National
Assembly a prominent role in the law-making process, especially
since the government is necessarily of the same side as the
Assembly, for the Assembly can dismiss the government through a
motion of censure. The power to pass a vote of censure, or vote of
no confidence, is limited. As was the case in the Fourth Republic's
Constitution, new cabinets do not have to receive a vote of
confidence. Also, a vote of censure can only occur after 10 percent
of the members sign a petition; if rejected, those members who
signed cannot sign another petition until that session of
parliament had ended. If the petition gets the required support, a
vote of censure must gain an absolute majority of all members, not
just those voting. If the Assembly and the Senate have politically
distinct majorities, it is expected in most cases that the Assembly
will prevail, so that open conflict between the two houses is
uncommon.

The Senate also serves to monitor the government's actions by
publishing many reports every year on various topics.